


To the Point of Invention

by ultimatequeenoffandoms



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: New Year's Eve, New Year's Kiss, Oneshot, Other, and talk of fireworks, as well as an engine blowing up, mainly so i can work around a bit with zolf's backstory, minor recollection of a mine collapsing with implied canonical character death, modern au-ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:21:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27384100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ultimatequeenoffandoms/pseuds/ultimatequeenoffandoms
Summary: On New Year's Eve in the year of *mumble-mubmle*, Zolf ponders over loud noises and has a nice evening with Cel(summaries are so hard y'all)
Relationships: Celiquillithon "Cel" Sidebottom/Zolf Smith
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17





	To the Point of Invention

Hurrying out the door, Zolf took a deep breath. He could do this. One New Year’s Eve out, with a friend. And fireworks. It was just sound. He could handle sounds. Loud ones even. Then someone set a cracker off in the street below, and he could feel his entire body flinch, violently. His blood was rushing in his ears, heart pounding and he had to put a hand to the wall to catch himself. As soon as he felt his breathing even out just a little, he hurried off. He didn't want to be late. 

You would think it would be confined spaces or being trapped. Both had happened after all. When the mine had collapsed, and he had been stuck under the rubble calling desperately after his brother who had been even further along. 

Or at the ship, where this time it was an engine that exploded and took most of his leg with it too.

But it had always been the sound of the lamp exploding with the mine that stuck in his mind. It had always been the sound of the engine blowing up that haunted his nightmares.

And it was those moments that he was reminded of, every time he heard a firework or cracker go off, thunder booming, that one time he had the misfortune to pass the site of a controlled demolition just as it went off. It was the loud sounds that at his worst days set off panic attacks from the stress.

But Cel loved fireworks. Cel loved explosions too, at least when controlled. Well, semi-controlled. And Cel was his best friend. Maybe even more, if they'd be interested, but Zolf was sure they didn't feel that way. Real life wasn't like in romance novels. Your best friend didn't love you back just because you loved them.

But Cel had asked him to spend New Year’s Eve just the two of them. Usually he spent it locked in his apartment with earplugs and noise cancelling headphones, all to drown the loud sounds out. Not that Cel knew that, or any of their other shared friends. They just thought he didn't care for celebrating it, and that he was tired after Christmas, which they usually did spend together. 

The truth was that Zolf hadn't told any of his friends he couldn't stand loud noises like explosions and thunder. And fireworks. He couldn't avoid it completely of course, especially when Cel was experimenting and messing around. But he didn't think they noticed him flinching too often, and usually he managed to keep his fear and panic out of his voice. 

It was stupid after all. It was just sound.

Shaking his head, Zolf tried to ignore the thoughts in his own head. He knew he shouldn't think like that. Technically he knew that. He knew, because if it had been anyone else with those thoughts he'd be telling them that it was wrong, that their fears and feelings were valid, and that it was alright to feel scared, even as an adult, even if it was irrational. But then again, he did have a bad habit of throwing stones at glass houses.

And he couldn't help that he agreed with the thoughts when they were about him too.

Luckily though, there were no more crackers or early fireworks that went off during his walk, and when he arrived at Cel's place, an odd combination of a laboratory and a workshop where they got paid well for repairing whatever people needed and building custom things as commissions, he was just about to enter the side door that led to the stairwell with their apartment when the door to the workshop flew open and Cel stumbled out, waving towards him, to catch his attention. 

"Hey, hey, Zolf! Zolf over here, I'm here!"

Turning towards them, he can't help but smile at their appearance. He had dressed up a bit for the evening, wearing a nice pair of slacks and a dress shirt, though he'd thrown on his usual winter coat against the cold. Cel though, true to their personality, had dressed to the nines and then seemed to forgotten that their fancy striped orange dress pants and white dress shirt, with a matching vest and bowtie was not appropriate clothes to work in, especially when your work is messy, oily, and sometimes tends to go up in flames. The pants had a few oil stains on them, the sleeves on the dress shirt were rolled up, the vest had somehow stayed clean but the bowtie hung a bit loose and had a soot stain on it, with a matching one on their cheek, framed by one green and one blue eye and short and messy blonde hair.

"Hi Cel. Any particular reason we're down here?" He asked, walking over to them as they motioned him into the warm shop and onwards to their private work room.

"Well, yes, I was working on a thing, for the big hour you know, and I kind of got caught up and I may have forgotten to make us something to eat but I ordered pizza, I hope that's okay, and the pizza arrived just before you and it's down here because I didn't have time to take it up and I hope it's okay if we eat here because then I can finish up while we eat?" Cel finished their ramble with a deep breath, and it was only now Zolf noticed the slight flush on their face and what it meant. Cel always rambled, but there were occasions when they went on for longer than usual. 

"Oh, come on, did you start drinking without me?" Zolf laughed, and shoved Cel lightly in the side.

"Well, it was just a drink or so, I was feeling a bit nervous, I mean what, I meant excited, excited, I was excited, anyways we should eat, did you want to eat-"

Zolf interrupts them gently.

"Hey, I don't mind. And sure, let's eat. And I don't mind you working while we eat."

Cel relaxes and shows him around a corner where they've prepared a break table with some chairs and two pizza boxes. There's even a candle lit, and somehow that makes the atmosphere a whole lot warmer, despite there not being any plates and there's two coffee mugs set out as drinking glasses for the already opened bottle of wine.

The two of them sit down and start eating as Cel tinkers and screws with what looks like some small component of a bigger thing, and they talk about anything and everything, as they usually do. Talking is easy with Cel, even when it's not. Time passes as their conversation flows, Zolf gets a bit tipsy as well, the alcohol lending him courage to lean forward and swipe away the soot stain that's been on Cel's cheek since he arrived, and for a moment he lets himself pretend that the flush in Cel's face is from more than just the alcohol. 

It's not until Cel finally gets the thing they've been working on finished and put in place in it's bigger machine, proudly announcing it finished that he realises it's almost midnight, and he hasn't heard a single firework or cracker go off during the night.

"Um, Cel. How come there hasn't been any fireworks going off yet? It's almost midnight and I haven't heard a single thing." He asks, hoping the question to be innocent enough to not allude as to why he cares.

"Oh, that's because of this room! As you know, my experiments sometimes get a bit... loud, and after enough times of the neighbours complaining that they might start a blood feud, I had to get it soundproofed. It goes both ways, so you can't hear much from outside either. Pretty nice, right?"

Oh. Zolf nods and hums a bit for an answer. He wonders if them being here for the evening was intentional, if they somehow had figured it out. But they couldn't have, surely. 

"So, eh," he changes the subject. "The thing you worked on, what's it for? I don't have a clue what it is, but that's not unusual for me."

"Ah, this? Well, eh, you see, it's this really cool thing that I made, and eh actually," Cel is blushing now, he's actually sure of it. "It's actually for you," they finally get out.

What?

"For me? Well, ehm, thank you, but I still don't know what it is." Zolf can feel his ears turning red too. Why was Cel giving him a gift?

"I- ah, I'm sorry Zolf, this may be a bit intrusive, I know we're friends and so but you don't seem comfortable talking about it and well, yeah, ehm, you don't like loud noises right?"

He freezes. Cel continues.

"I, I couldn't help but notice, how you react when things go wrong sometimes when you're here and what I'm working on ends up exploding, or when it's storming out and, well, that's actually why I wanted us to eat here, because it's quiet, but that's not the point, it's that, well, I'll just show you!"

And Cel turns the machine on, and suddenly it's projecting a light show on the wall, in hundreds of different colours, moving and weaving into intricate patterns. It's beautiful.

"I figured you wouldn't like fireworks much either, but I didn't want to take away the beauty of them for you when spending New Year’s Eve together, after I noticed you never did spend it with us, with Hamid and Azu and Oscar or me, so I, I made this. For you."

Cel isn't looking at him anymore, their gaze averted. They're still blushing furiously, and they're wringing their hands together, waiting for him to respond.

"Cel, I. Yes. I am... scared. Both of loud sounds and well... telling people. But. Thank you. This is incredible, it's amazing. Thank you so much." He reaches out and grabs their hand, and as they turn back towards him, he manages to meet their gaze.

"Ehm, there is one more thing Zolf. I, you're really amazing, you know that, right? And it's okay to be scared, I mean I'm scared of the dark. And it's just, well- oh fuck." Cel pauses briefly, reaches back to the table, and downs the rest of the wine in the bottle. "I really like you a lot, like romantically!"

What?

Zolf’s mouth gapes slightly, because he has to be dreaming right now. Right? It's not until he's realising that Cel is staring at him, their body tense, that he understands they're waiting for an answer. 

"I- me- you- I like you a lot too!" He blurts out and tucks on to the end; "Romantically!" 

Then Cel starts giggling, which turns into a full-blown laugh, and he can't help but join in, laughing at the absurdity and awkwardness of the situation. They're still holding hands, when Zolf glances at the clock on the wall and realises it just hit midnight.

"Hey," he says, mentioning towards the clock and suddenly feeling a bit shy. "Um, may I?"

Cel answers by reaching down and kissing him straight on the lips. Zolf kisses back.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it! and thanks to the Writing Rangers (esp Jenn and Sun) for getting me into this lovely ship.
> 
> If you wanna join my RQG Writing server there's a link in the pinned post of my tumblr, ultimate-queen-of-fandoms2  
> All ages allowed, though the NSFW section is restricted to adults. We support any ship and any fic as long as it is properly tagged! You can join if you like writing, reading or talking about RQG fic, ships and headcanons!


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